The process of distributing software is complicated and expensive. Numerous groups make up a software product distribution team, including software development, program management, quality assurance, and manufacturing. Each group must coordinate with each other in order to release a final product. Typically, there are multiple phases of the project, where each phase involves wider distribution of the product. These phases may include alpha and beta phases, that have the purpose of allowing software development and quality assurance to work out existing problems with the product, and a shipping phase, where the product is widely distributed and sold. For each phase, the software typically is distributed on a floppy disk or CD-ROM to prospective users of the software product. Preparing these disks for distribution is costly in terms of both labor and manufacturing.
The manufacturing cost includes the cost of purchasing writeable media such as the floppy disks or CD-ROMs, equipment to write the software files onto the media, labels to mark the media with the name and version of the software, and the packaging and shipping costs associated with sending the media to users and purchasers of the product. Labor costs include the cost of coordinating the manufacturing process, the testing process, and the physical distribution process. The manufacturing process includes the preparation of physical media for distribution, and may be very time-consuming depending on the availability of manufacturing resources. Additional costs may arise from mistakes in the process that require the re-manufacturing of the product media. For example, if a severe problem is detected late in the process after the media has been prepared, a product team may decide not to ship that set of media and opt to fix the problem and create a new set of media for distribution. Creating a new set of media for distribution is non-trivial and costs money in time, labor, and manufacturing, especially if resource bottlenecks occur at the manufacturing end of the process. Most importantly however, creating a new set of physical software distribution media delays the product's time to market.
Process standards such as ISO 9001 have been developed in an attempt to streamline product release processes, but problems remain, including reducing the cost of preparing media for distribution, and reducing the amount of time required to create the media and distribute it to the end user as quickly as possible.